List of Prior Art Literatures
    House, J. R., Holmes, C., and Allsopp, A. J. (1997) Prevention of Heat Strain by Immersing the Hands and Forearms in Water. J Royal Naval Medical Service 83.1:26-30.    House, J. R. (1998) Extremity Cooling as a Method for Reducing Heat Strain. Journal of Defence Science Vol. 3 No. 1.
Strenuous activities such as those engaged in sports, military or fire fighting actions can quickly elevate a person's body core temperature. Unless the body is suitably cooled off, excessive high body core temperature build up has contributed to heat stroke related fatalities. Traditionally, people who engage in such strenuous activities may wear active cooling garments such as liquid, ice, gas or air-cooled vest in order to relieve heat strain. The drawbacks of these garments are many—they are cumbersome and expensive, and cooling garments also increase insulation and, therefore, reduce sweat evaporation. As a result of added weight, these garments may even increase metabolic heat production.
Besides garments, other devices for cooling off body core temperature are not new. Hitherto, there were sun tanning tubs or pools which allow a user to partially immerse in water while sun bathing (see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,101,823 and D447,807). Likewise, there are floating pool chairs which permit a user to sit on them while floating in water (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,423). Clearly, it is neither realistic nor appropriate for persons who suffer from high heat strain while engaging in vigorous sports, military actions or fire fighting activities to use the sun tanning tubs or pool chairs to cool themselves off.
According to recent studies (House et al. 1997; House 1998), heat strain prevention can be effectively achieved by immersing a person's extremities in water. For instance, House et al. examined the effectiveness of hand immersion in water at different temperatures as a technique for reducing heat strain in test subjects. Four subjects exercised at a moderate work rate whilst wearing fire-fighting clothing in an environmental chamber at 40° C. The subjects reached heat strain safety limits within 45 minutes of commencing work at which point they rested in the heat for 30 minutes while they underwent one of four experimental conditions: without intervention (control); or with their hands immersed in water at 10° C., 20° C. or 30° C., respectively. During the control condition without hand immersion the subjects were unable to cool. Immersion of the hands in water lowered body core temperature within ten minutes. These results indicate that hand immersion in water at a temperature of between 10° C. and 30° is an efficient means of cooling heat stressed personnel who have been exercising.
In view of the foregoing, it is advantageous to have a chair equipped with one or more water basins for heat strain reduction whereby the user can simply immerse his forearms and hands and, optionally, his feet into the basins filled with cold tap water. Such an inexpensive and convenient chair enables people who engage in strenuous activities to sit down and to submerge their extremities in water for a short period of time to allow their body core temperature to come down.
While there have been invented chairs with cooler or refrigerating functions (see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,719,764, 5,628,544 and 6,106,058), a chair equipped with water basins for heat strain reduction was simply not thought of before. The closest art are U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,596, which teaches a mist-emitting lounge chair and U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,181, which discloses a lounge chair with a trough underneath for water circulation in order to emanate sounds simulating those of a running brook and, at the same time, to emit mist and negative ions into the air to concoct a “stress-relieving environment”. However, sitting on one of these mist-discharging chairs does not help a user to lower his body core temperature to any significant degree. In addition, the need to wear proper clothing also renders these chairs impractical for users engaging in military or fire fighting activities.